


cards on the table (we're both showing hearts)

by JaeRianL



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, F/F, First Dates, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:34:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26310469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaeRianL/pseuds/JaeRianL
Summary: Fitzsimmons are the ultimate SHIELD power couple, of that there's no doubt. It's just a shame neither of them are remotely interested in each other.
Relationships: Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson, Lance Hunter & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz/Lance Hunter, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	cards on the table (we're both showing hearts)

Everyone on the base knows that FitzSimmons are a thing. They’re so bloody obvious about it, it’s kind of sickening to watch at times. Not that anyone says anything about it, what with Section Seventeen still up in the air, not to mention the secretive nature of the British scientists. They’re like the ultimate SHIELD power couple, although neither of them are quite aware of that fact, and while everyone is more than thrilled that they’re both happy together, it doesn’t mean to say that there aren’t times that people wish they weren’t together.

Take Daisy and Hunter, for example, who spend the majority of their days lamenting over their crushes on the young Brits, wanting them to be happy, but with the field agents instead. Their friendship had been an unusual one, with Hunter still somewhat offended over being called Trainspotting, but when he’d noticed Daisy all heart eyed over Simmons, he couldn’t help but join her pining, the two of them not so subtly staring at the scientists, a silent camaraderie born from pining from afar. And ever since, whenever either one wanted to complain about their rather horrific looking love life prospects, the other would listen in with a sympathetic ear, and a bag of sweets at the ready - apparently Hunter’s drinking ability was “unnatural”, and therefore they weren’t allowed to drink together anymore.

So, when Valentine’s Day came around, sooner than anyone expected, the hot topic up for discussion had inevitably become  _ the _ FitzSimmons date. Whenever asked about their plans for the day, both scientists had brushed off the nosy agents, and had even resorted to speaking in some kind of made up language around the more insistent agents, much to everyone’s dismay. Eventually, after weeks of interrogation, May and Coulson even get involved with it at one point, it all comes to a head three days before the infamous date, as the whole team spend an evening relaxing in one of the private common rooms after a week-long mission.

No one’s entirely sure how the conversation had gotten to this point, but it had somehow meandered towards the state of the team’s love lives, or lack thereof. Of course, as with every other conversation to do with love and dating, the team starts quizzing the scientists on their relationships, teasing them in an attempt to find out something more - no, it wasn’t just to end the base wide betting pool, but to be fair, even Barton and Romanoff had gotten involved. It doesn’t go amiss that the two share an irritated look at the questioning, and Fitz even leans in closer to Jemma to whisper her a question, which doesn’t go unnoticed by neither Daisy nor Hunter, who look more put out at the couple’s unconscious displays of love, trust, and affection.

“Look, I dunno what else you want us to tell you, we’re not dating, never have been, never will be.” Fitz insists, scowling as everyone else either rolls their eyes or makes a disbelieving noise of some description.

“Come on Turbo, it’s not a crime, none of us would care if you guys told us you’re together. We just want you two to be happy.” Mack says, smiling kindly at the scientists.

“Jemma and I are perfectly happy being single and, more importantly, not together. Besides, we’re really not each other’s type.” 

“Well, who is your type then?” Hunter asks, unable to hide his eagerness as he leans forward.

“You are, you, you absolute bloody moron!” Fitz exclaims, jumping from his seat on the sofa, covering his mouth the second he realises what he’d said.

Not giving anyone a chance to react, he sprints from the common room, Hunter still frozen as he tries to process what has just happened there. Jemma is, unsurprisingly, the first to properly react, the biochemist sighing whilst rubbing at her temples, trying to stop a headache that hasn’t even started yet. Pushing herself off of the sofa, she sends a kind smile in Hunter’s direction, looks longingly at Daisy - oh, that’s new - before running after her best friend. Hunter is well and truly stunned. Fitz has always been an unattainable dream for him, one which he hadn’t really allowed himself to think about for too long so that he can’t get sucked into it forever, but to know it could be possible, well, it’s like Christmas coming early. 

After a few minutes, his arse still firmly stuck to the sofa, Hunter finds it in himself to go after Fitz, wanting to clear up any miscommunications now that he knows he has a chance with him. Skiding through the Playground, somehow less graceful than normal but just as determined, he finds himself panting, surprisingly out of breath, outside of Fitz’s bunk in almost no time at all. Before he even gets the chance to knock on Fitz’s door, Hunter finds himself face to face with Jemma, the short scientist eyeing him up like he was some kind of teenage miscreant - he hadn’t been one of them since, well, he was a teen. Following what must have been one of the most painful minute and a halves of his life, Jemma moves to let Hunter in, silently daring him to fuck Fitz over.

“You know, if you’re truly interested, you’d have a shot with Daisy.” He says as he slides past her, internally cackling at the deer in headlights expression she pulls.

Gently closing the door behind Jemma, the biochemist sprinting away from the bunk like a woman on a mission, Hunter turns his attention to Fitz, who he finds sat on the end of his bed, looking absolutely miserable as he tries to shrink in on himself. Striding over to the bed, Hunter perches himself next to Fitz, causing the younger man to properly take a look at him, the tear-stricken look breaking Hunter’s heart the longer he sees the sadness practically etched onto his face. Deciding to do what might be the second most daftest thing that he’s ever done in his life, Hunter places a hand on Fitz’s cheek, gently swiping away one of the tears falling onto his pale cheeks, before pulling him in to what had to be the greatest kiss of Hunter’s life.

Because kissing Fitz, well it was like kissing sunshine personified, it was warm, welcoming and oh so perfect, Hunter could have spent his whole life wrapped up in this one moment. However, the need for air soon outweighs their ability to carry on kissing, and they pull away, neither man able to hide their smile. Pulling Fitz into his side, Hunter presses a kiss to his curls, rubbing soothing circles onto the engineer’s hip as he takes some calming breaths. Even after Fitz manages to calm down, the pair sit contently in their silence, neither of them wanting to disturb the peaceful atmosphere they’d created. 

“So,” Fitz sighs out, leaning his head against Hunter’s shoulder, “I guess we should talk about this.”

“We should. I’m sorry, by the way, for not believing you when you said you and Jemma weren’t together.”

Fitz shrugs, nuzzling into Hunter’s warm embrace and muttering out an apology for what he’d said earlier, insisting that he doesn’t believe that about him at all. With limited prompting, Fitz begins to explain the intricacies of his and Jemma’s friendship, that they’d only ever seen themselves as siblings, and that they’d latched onto one another when they’d met at the Academy, due to them being the first people their own age who truly understood one another. As it turns out, the reason for all of their secret discussions in the past few weeks, in a language that they’d created in their first year at the Academy combining Scottish and Welsh, had been due to the pair trying to psych themselves up to asking Hunter and Daisy out for Valentine’s Day, bouncing ideas for the perfect first dates off of one another in their free time.

This admission causes Hunter’s heart to melt into a puddle of goo, and he is left truly speechless. This adorable Scottish scientist had spent hours trying to work out how to ask him out, only for the team’s disbelief to ruin the plan he’d set out. Not wanting to say the wrong thing, Hunter gently squeezes Fitz’s hip, trying to show how in awe he is of this wonderful human being who somehow managed to reciprocate his feelings. When Fitz finishes his explanation, Hunter has made his mind up that his planning shan’t go to waste, and insists that they go out on that date, joking that Jemma would kill him if he didn’t treat her Fitz right - although, he is in no way reassured by Fitz tensing up and his refusal to answer Hunter’s rightly concerned follow up questions. 

But none of that matters, in three days time, Hunter’s going to be going on a date with the engineer of his dreams, and he doesn’t think he’ll ever come down from this high.

\-----

The next few days are an absolute whirlwind of emotions, the base alive with gossiping agents commiserating over the loss of the betting pool, whose prize is given to Fitz and Simmons by May, the older agent glaring at anyone who tries to dispute this decision. When Hunter and Daisy get the chance to speak to each other, exhausted and bruised after a particularly rigorous training session with May, they’re both on cloud nine as they gush about their respective scientists. Of course, the first thing Hunter does is find out what happened whilst he and Fitz spent their evening together after  _ the reveal _ , seeing as Jemma had sped out of there like her arse was on fire.

Apparently, when Jemma had stumbled back into the common room, she’d stalked over to Daisy, pulled her from her seat, briefly pausing to apologise to Coulson and May for disrupting their conversation, before pulling her into the first empty room she found and making out with her. Fudging over some details Hunter really didn’t want to know, Daisy goes on to reveal that they’d pulled away and then asked each other out at the same time, gushing about how much they liked one another. Whilst Daisy admits she'd have loved to sit and make out with Jemma for the rest of the night, they’d been found by Coulson and May who proceeded to give each woman the shovel talk on behalf of the other, before switching who was getting which talk. The mention of this talk sends shivers down Hunter’s spine, everyone knows that Fitz is basically Coulson and May’s only son, and lord knows he’s not been in May’s good books, well, ever.

So, aside from dodging May every time she seemingly appeared from nowhere over the following days, he couldn’t be happier. When Valentine’s Day finally arrives, Hunter is thrilled to hear that their team is already off of active duty - as it turns out, the teams in admin and HR didn’t want to inhibit the chances of the FitzSimmons date, when it was supposed to happen - meaning Fitz could carry out his original plans. The former mercenary awakens to a knock at his door, and by the time he’s made it there, more asleep than awake, he finds a breakfast tray with a plate of British style pancakes, a glass of apple juice and some of his favourite fruit cut up in a bowl, with a little note. Taking the tray back in his room, mainly to prevent anyone who isn’t Fitz from seeing him melt at the gesture, he settles back down on the bed, opening the neatly folded note that reads:

_ Hi Hunter, _

_ Sorry I’m not here to eat breakfast with you, but I have some last minute bits to prep before our date! Meet me in the garage at eleven and we can go from there!  _

_ Fitz <3 _

Knowing that he has plenty of time, Hunter eats his breakfast whilst scrolling on his phone and texting Daisy to calm her down, apparently Jemma has been wooing her all morning, and in her own words ‘I’m a mess Lancelot, a useless sapphic mess’. When he’s done with his breakfast, Hunter gets himself dressed for the date, wearing a long-sleeved grey Henley, a pair of unripped black jeans and a faux leather jacket, all of which he’d bought specifically for today after seeing the state of his wardrobe. After some frantic messages to Daisy, he decides to brave leaving the comfort of his room, strolling through the base with nervous energy practically oozing from his pores. 

However all of that dissipates when he sees Fitz leaning against the door frame, not yet noticing Hunter’s staring, although he can’t be blamed, not when he’s looking at what must be an angel gracing the Earth with his presence. Shaking himself from his stupor, Hunter walks up behind Fitz, hugging him to his chest in lieu of greeting the younger man. When Fitz gazes up at him, all Hunter can think is that he could get lost in those sparkling blue eyes for years, and he would do anything to have him in his life for the rest of his days. After some reluctant prompting on Fitz’s part, Hunter pulls away from the hug, lacing their hands together before letting the young Scotsman lead them to one of the few cars on base that don’t have the SHIELD logo emblazoned on it. 

With Fitz taking the driver’s seat, Hunter lets himself relax in the passenger’s seat, not nearly as concerned as he would be if it were May or Bobbi driving them around. Feeling somewhat saddened at not being able to maintain physical contact with Fitz, the former mercenary starts trying to wheedle out any information about the date, the engineer laughing it off and deflecting from his (half hearted) attempts. Instead, he changes the conversation to discuss Daisy and Jemma’s date, the two comparing notes about the day from both perspectives. Getting immersed in the discussion, Hunter doesn’t even realise when they park, it’s only when he notices that Fitz is no longer in the driver’s seat, but is standing next to him, holding his door open, his hand held out for him. 

Taking the calloused hand, Hunter smiles as he takes in their surroundings, an idyllic looking public garden that he’s never been to before, despite living so close to this area. The agents spend hours wandering through the gardens, talking about anything and everything, besides work that is, neither man wants to risk bringing forth the apocalypse. Eventually, when Fitz’s stomach starts growling, the Scotsman looking somewhat sheepish at the rather unhealthy sounding noises coming from his stomach, they turn back towards the ice cream van they’d passed moments before, the pair grumbling over the lack of flake ice creams in America. 

Finally settling on some ice cream sandwiches which are bigger than their hands, Fitz eagerly leads Hunter further into the gardens, the Englishman jogging to keep up with his date, until they stop at a bench underneath a cherry blossom tree. Sitting down on the old, wooden bench, the men unconsciously gravitating towards one another, they soak up the peacefulness of this hidden nook of the park, smiles never leaving their faces as they sit and eat the sugary monstrosities that they’d brought. After a while, Hunter leans into Fitz, pressing a kiss to his temple before resting his head on Fitz’s shoulder, watching as the cherry blossom petals fall from the tree. 

“Is it too soon to ask you to be my boyfriend?” Fitz asks out of the blue, causing Hunter’s head to shoot off of his shoulder to properly look at him, the field agent frozen just like when Fitz had admitted his feelings. “It’s just, I feel so comfortable around you, and I know this is only our first date, but I feel like there’s something between us, something real, and I would hate to mess that up. And that’s exactly what I’ve done, isn’t it? Fuck, it was too soon, oh my god I’m so sorry, I get it if you don’t want to go on ano…”

Fitz’s terrified rambling is silenced by Hunter turning his face towards him with a gentle finger beneath his chin. Stunned into silence, Fitz stares at Hunter as he watches the petals fall around him, landing in his hair and marvelling at the beauty of the man before him, oblivious to the fact that Hunter is doing the same exact thing. Watching as Hunter’s grin grows brighter each second he looks at Fitz, nodding with an almost furious speed, he doesn’t hesitate to kiss Hunter, caressing his face like it’s the most precious thing in the world. 

Fitz can honestly say he hasn’t felt this clear headed in years, his mind calm and focused solely on the marvel that is Lance Hunter. Pulling away, he stares at Hunter, taking in every detail he can about the man, determined to learn everything he can about him, tracking every mole, freckle, and laugh line he can see. Taking the Englishman’s hand once more, he breathes out a contented sigh, staring up at the delicate flowers that seem to be that little bit brighter now.

“So… Is that a yes to being my boyfriend?” Fitz asks cheekily, smiling as Hunter softly nudges his shoulder.

“Of course it is, in fact, I couldn’t think of anything else I’d prefer.”

Settled under that cherry blossom tree, joy running through his veins, Fitz knows that this moment is going to be the start of something incredible. While the FitzSimmons date hadn’t come to be, the FitzHunter date has been a roaring success.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what you thought & come find me on [ Tumblr](https://acetoshikosato.tumblr.com/)! Thanks for reading!!
> 
> Jae <3


End file.
